ICC Note: A Nigerian pastor opens up about the persecution some of his church members have faced at the hands of Boko Haram, including pressure to deny Christ at gunpoint. Pastor Daniel Awayi visited the parliament of the United Kingdom to highlight the plight of persecuted Christians ahead of Nigeria’s presidential election Saturday.
Nigeria 3/25/2015 (World Watch Monitor) – Anticipation of further violence as Nigeria begins voting for its next president is growing after the release of a new video shows Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau threatening that the election ‘will not happen in peace’.
The chilling message will alarm Christians from Nigeria’s northern states who live in persistent fear of attack from the group.
In the lead up to the elections a Nigerian pastor visited the UK parliament to highlight the problems Christians face in the troubled region. Afterwards, in an exclusive interview, Pastor Daniel Awayi told World Watch Monitor about atrocities carried out on his congregation by Boko Haram.
Ahead of Nigeria’s delayed Presidential election on 28 March, the world’s media remain focused on the continued attacks by Boko Haram insurgents in the country’s north-eastern states and their cross-border raids into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Nigeria’s government has failed to stop the group taking control of large swathes of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states. The standard refrain that the insurgency will ‘soon be over’ was repeated on 20 March when President Goodluck Jonathan assured the BBC that the Islamists would soon have no more control of any territory.
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